DeSantis vows to keep Florida schools open amid COVID surge

close

Video

Ron DeSantis rips AOC, lockdown politicians for fleeing to Florida

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis sounds off on 'Hannity'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has insisted that schools will remain open for in-person learning across the state, regardless of the number of students or teachers who test positive for COVID-19 after winter break. 

Speaking at a press conference in Jacksonville Tuesday, DeSantis discussed his plan to prioritize at-home testing for the elderly and others with risk factors for illness. His approach comes at a time when the Biden administration is working to roll out free at-home tests for all Americans.

The governor highlighted how Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo adjusted policy at the beginning of the school year in September to prevent having healthy children who test positive or had exposure to COVID-19 stay away from school for weeks. Instead, only symptomatic kids are sent home. 

DESANTIS JOKES ABOUT DEMS FROM STRICT COVID STATES VISITING FLORIDA AFTER AOC SPOTTED MASKLESS IN MIAMI 

"Our schools will be open in the state of Florida. If you look at the data that's been amassed throughout the pandemic, it's found that you have worse outcomes by closing schools," DeSantis said at a prior press conference on Monday. "And so it'd be so damaging. Kids need to be in school." 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference in November 2021. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"Parents need to be assured that they're going to be able to send their kids to school," the governor said, arguing data showed that schools have not driven waves of the virus in the past. "Our universities are going to be open, our state universities, they're going to have in person instruction. I think any university that doesn't do that should have to refund a hundred percent of the tuition to the parents." 

DeSantis argued school closures in other areas of the country, such as in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, mostly have come in working-class areas and mitigation measures returning students to remote learning amid security concerns and behavioral issues further deny parents a right to an education for their children. 

Ladapo on Tuesday made the distinction between testing to receive clinical treatment and change the outcome of the disease versus testing that wastes resources – such as for travel requirements, to return to work or school or because someone was exposed but has no risk factors or symptoms. 

Newly appointed state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo speaks during a press conference at Neo City Academy in Kissimmee, Florida.  (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"This fantasy that the federal leadership has painted that you can somehow stop this pandemic by just doing more testing – I’m waiting for more people to realize, it’s completely failed," Ladapo said. "There now have been published papers showing that all of those shutdowns and all of those quarantines hurt kids. And that is a darn shame… That is unacceptable. And we’re stopping it here in Florida." 

Florida has been pressuring the federal government to allow it to buy more monoclonal antibody treatments. DeSantis said Tuesday, "when you have a free society like Florida, you can choose to be more cautious," arguing he’s not preventing access to testing for those listening to guidance from Dr. Anthony Fauci but also does not want to live in a "biomedical state." He rejected vaccine mandates that would cost firefighters, law enforcement or nurses their jobs as they have in New York and elsewhere. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

He said he also opposed proposed vaccine mandates for children to attend public school. 

Florida has a statewide ban on universal mask mandates in schools – something that some parents of special needs children are fighting in a federal lawsuit. Some school districts in the state are weighing the legality of bringing back mask requirements as they battle the spread of the omicron variant.